I Love You More than the Prospect of Using You
by Unstoppable Cyborg
Summary: ...Even if it means losing you. Rated T for major character death. Jloby; WarStaff-centric.


**This AU was originally created by chillahead-bridge on tumblr, and thus I don't own this au nor do I own the** ** _Tales of Arcadia_** **franchise. Since I don't own either, don't expect my take on** ** _3Below_** **to be accurate. The premise of this AU is that Jim and Claire respectively** ** _are_** **the Amulet and Shadow Staff, and Toby has to teach them to pass for human.**

 **This was written for Day Five of _Trollhunters_ Rare Pair week, which was organized by itsanotherfanficwriterohno. The prompt was "I love you more than _".**

* * *

Claire opened a portal to the Shadow Realm that swallowed both of her former wielders. Her body shook with the effort of keeping Morgana at bay. Her helmet began to phase in and out of reality as her hair gained and lost length, like she was losing control of her form. She cried out in pain, and as she stretched her hand out to create portals that would free her friends Toby thought he could see golden cracks around her eyes.

"TP? I love you, and make sure to tell Jim I love him when he reforms," she said, and her voice sounded choked up. "You guys have five seconds to destroy me."

"Claire, no!" Blinky called out. When he had learned the truth about Claire and Jim, he had vouched for them and the fact that they deserved to be treated as people. When Morgana began to wield her, Blinky had refused to destroy her. He had protested when Jim had been willing to destroy himself so they could find Merlin's tomb. And now Claire was asking for death.

Claire gave them one last blurry-eyed smile before the air around her darkened. "I don't think I'll be around much longer either way."

Claire's body disappeared and reverted into a staff. A portal opened, and golden chains tried to grab for her. AAARRRGGHH! grabbed onto Claire's helpless form before Morgana could.

Toby grabbed his warhammer and rose into the air. He then began a rapid descent that ended in him destroying the Shadow Staff.

The fall ended in him killing Claire.

* * *

Jim didn't hate Toby. It would be easier if he did, because they were a trio and had been practically since the beginning of Jim and Claire's _very state of being._ There was _nothing_ that had been supposed to be able to tear them apart. And yet, Toby was the biggest reason why Claire had been destroyed. It had been his hammer that had shattered her into too many pieces.

Maybe Jim didn't hate Toby because Toby had been the one to have killed him, but they had been headed to Merlin's tomb and he had fixed the amulet so Jim could come back. No one was going to fix Claire - there weren't really any people with the skill required to restore her given just how badly she had been broken. As Jim pulled back from the goodbye kiss, he handed a bag to Toby and whispered in his ear.

"While you were getting treated at the hospital and the trolls were seeking shelter from the sun, I picked up every last piece of Claire. I think she'll be safer with you than with me. I don't trust Merlin around her."

It made sense. Jim was horrified to learn that Morgana's hand was used to create him, both because of the fact that a part of the evil sorceress was a part of him and also because of exact way he had been created. Toby didn't trust Merlin with Claire, but he didn't want Jim to go with Merlin either. He couldn't be sure that the wizard would see Jim as a person and a miracle instead of a tool like Morgana had with Claire. However, the trolls needed a Trollhunter and Jim was the closest there would be to one for the rest of time, so Toby had to let him go.

"I will," Toby said, because if he couldn't protect one of the people he loved he could protect the remains of the other.

* * *

There was a scale for nonhumans passing for humans. Changelings, especially older ones like Strickler and Nomura, were at one end of the spectrum, being highly skilled at pretending to be human. The other end was set by Jim and Claire in the beginning, when they had human forms but they didn't even have human names; they were just Amulet and Shadow Staff. However, they had climbed that scale with some amount of grace. Aja and Krel, who were _apparently aliens,_ fell somewhere in the first quarter of that scale. So did the guy who looked old enough to be their grandpa (but was actually their bodyguard) and their dog as well.

It honestly explained so much.

"We have an old phaser rifle that would be able to get through their armor, _if_ it had a proper power core," Vex explained. Aja was holding a device in one of her four hands and was walking around Toby's, Steve's, and Eli's backpacks. When it started beeping, she pulled out a velvet bag that Toby kept with him because burying Claire didn't feel right and he couldn't exactly cremate her.

"This will work," Aja said, and Toby bolted to grab the bag back from her.

"Claire _isn't_ someone's weapon to wield." She had been so much more than that.

* * *

Darci's legs were trapped underneath a large beam, and while Mary and Shannon were trying to lift it up and off of her they clearly weren't strong enough. Aja, Krel, Steve, and Eli tried to get closer to them, but they constantly being attacked by robots. AAARRRGGHH! could have lifted it, but it was a sunny day. All the trolls were safely inside, and the _one_ troll who was immune to daylight was tutoring sophomores.

The bounty hunter advanced towards the girls. None of Toby's weapons could penetrate his armor. Not the Warhammer, which was capable of destroying people whose bodies were weapons. Not the phaser rifle. It didn't have a powerful enough core.

Claire wouldn't have wanted this.

"Steve? Cover me!" Toby called out as he ran to a nearby, somewhat sheltered area despite the other boy's indignant protests.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry about this," Toby said as he took out the broken pieces of Claire from the bag that he kept with him no matter where he went. He then took apart the phaser rifle, took out its old core, and placed shards inside of it. Claire, Claire and Jim were so much more than weapons, but when Toby had broken both of them they were just the pieces of weapons. Unlike Jim, who had been rebuilt by Merlin, Claire had implied that she was never to be rebuilt into the Shadow Staff again. That didn't mean she couldn't be recycled into something new.

Besides, she had died to save the world. Being wielded to save her friends sounded like something Claire would, not quite want, but be more-or-less fine with in the end.

"Hey, ugly! Eat a load of _this!_ " Toby called out towards the bounty hunter, who turned away from the girls to face him.

Toby fired the rebuilt phaser rifle. Rather than a epic blast of light shooting out, there was only a puff of dark smoke.

"Is that the best you can do?" the bounty hunter asked.

The area around them grew darker. The areas of the phaser rifle that were normally glowing blue shifted to purple, and parts of the silvery body changed to black. Toby dropped the weapon in shock. That was a good thing, because it leapt out of his hands, glowing and fading in and out of reality. Out of the corner of his eye Toby saw Eli's jaw drop as the phaser rifle changed into the blurred silhouette of a girl.

The majority of her was the same black-as-shadows color, with brilliant purple eyes and the occasional purple streak flashing within her long, writhing hair. However, she was different now. She wore pauldrons and a chestplate reminiscent of her armor that were similar in color to the phaser rifle's, _no._ They were similar in color to _Claire's_ casing. In addition, there was a crest and series of spikes running down her spine, in a way that mimicked her armor. Her armor would occasionally reflect purple light, but it too was blurred at the edges. However, she didn't have any finger-armor, because Claire's finger guards were the same type of claws as Morgana's and _Claire was not Morgana's._

The bounty hunter backed away, likely unsettled by the writhing hair and fading in and out of reality. It was a common feeling that Toby had gotten used to as he had gotten used to living with two sentient weapons.

Claire raised her arms and brought them down like the conductor wielding a baton at an orchestra. Portals ripped open the bounty hunter's armor and the nanobots; others sliced through the beam to relieve the pressure from Darci's legs.

"No, that isn't the best I can do," Claire said to the bounty hunter's retreating form. She then began to collapse. Toby ran over and caught her.

"Okay, nevermind, that might have been the best," she said, violet eyes darting around and taking in the changed landscape of Arcadia Oaks.

"I thought I'd killed you!" Toby sobbed as he carded his fingers through his hair, which writhed in a less violent manner than before. If anything, it tried to weakly hug him.

"You did, for a bit, and you definitely destroyed the Skathe-Hrün," Claire said. "But I'm not Morgana's Shadow Staff anymore. I'm free now."

* * *

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